This research determined how the complex classroom ecology of differentiated (especially individualized) instruction affects (1) the ways teachers communicate knowledge about work procedures, deviance boundaries, and work values; and (2) teachers' perceptions of student orientation to such knowledge. Findings from a survey of 237 elementary school teachers showed that the higher the level of instructional differentiation, the less the use of formal communication, the more the use of written communication, and the higher the level of student orientation reported by the teacher. Supplementary classroom observations, however, suggested caution in interpreting the last finding. It is argued that teachers' engagement in intensive individual tutorial in highly-differentiated classrooms diverts their attention away from off-task behavior among other students. Hence, under such conditions the absence of social control "problems" may not indicate a highly-institutionalized classroom. This implies possible difficulties in legitimating the social world of individualized classrooms to the larger community. (Author)